MMSD School Board: Keep the Vaccine Requirement
Join us in supporting science-based protection of school staff health in the ongoing pandemic
Below is a letter submitted to the MMSD school board to OPPOSE item 8.1 on the Monday 6/26 agenda, which is a proposal to end the COVID vaccination requirement for school staff. We support continued vaccination requirements as a minimum standard for workplace protection.
Instructions on how to submit written comments or speak either in person or virtually can be found here: https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/about/board-of-education/board-of-education-virtual-meetings
The written comment portal is open NOW and closes at 3pm on Monday 6/26. Registration for virtual public comment opens one hour before the meeting (5pm for the start time of 6pm), and closes once the meeting is called to order. If you do speak in person, we recommend that you wear a well-fitting mask (respirator) including during your testimony. These meetings are usually quite packed and very few folks are masking.
We greatly appreciate any individual comments in support of continuing the vaccination requirement. You may reference our letter if you wish. Any personal comments in support of COVID vaccination are appreciated, and particularly from parents, former MMSD students, or current/former MMSD employees, as well as all community members.
The agenda for the Monday 6/26 6pm school board meeting can be found here: https://go.boarddocs.com/wi/mmsd/Board.nsf/Public
Dear Board of Education,
We oppose ending the staff COVID vaccine requirement. Additionally, we hope that the Board of Education will consider incorporating up-to-date COVID vaccine booster requirements into an updated policy. Instead of a testing requirement for unvaccinated individuals, we recommend that testing be made available for all staff regardless of vaccination status. A COVID vaccination requirement is a basic minimum level of occupational protection during an ongoing pandemic with clear benefits to staff health as well as benefits to maintaining staffing levels by reducing sick leave.
This letter is an update of the UW Workers’ COVID Response Working Group letter submitted for the school board meeting on April 23, 2023.
We are in full support of the unions’ demands including AFSCME’s petition1 (managerial accountability, $5 per hour wage increase across the board including custodians, reverse administrative bloat, ensure budgetary transparency, and defend democracy by ensuring a balance of power among the Board, administrators, and union workers), and the campaign for “Schools Madison’s Students Deserve”2 including Student Centered Staffing, Respect for Staff's Time, and Fair Pay.
Our teachers not only deserve what is being fought for above, but also the right to a safe and healthy workplace. COVID is still spreading. Current wastewater levels are 70% higher than they were in a previous low point in summer 2021. The risks of occupational exposure to COVID continue to be significant for school staff. COVID vaccination reduces the risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and death3 as well as long COVID, which can lead to long term disability.4 Vaccination is even more important for people who have been previously infected with COVID, as we now know that repeated infections increase the risk of organ damage.5
Disability injustice and racial disparities in education are exacerbated by uncontrolled infectious disease spread. A more equitable school community depends on basic health and safety measures. In addition to the potential for devastating health impacts, COVID infection without adequate up-to-date vaccination will worsen staffing shortages.
Some of the arguments against the vaccine requirement are based on costs or logistics of enforcement. We strongly believe that the costs of this workplace protection should be covered by the employer. For most MMSD staff, COVID vaccination will be covered by their health insurance. However, MMSD should cover the costs for a minority of staff for whom this cost is not covered by health insurance.
Extra staffing or expensive systems to track vaccinations are not needed for enforcement of the vaccination policy. Vaccination requirements can be checked as part of routine human resources-administered training and onboarding processes. Regardless of methods of documentation or enforcement, a vaccine requirement sets an important norm for this necessary and science-based protection. This vaccination policy paves the way for future efforts to make life-saving vaccines more accessible for the school community.
To enhance vaccine access, MMSD should make vaccines conveniently available for all staff and allow time off to get vaccinated and recover from side effects. Where resources may run short, please call on healthcare partners such as UW Health as well as other community partners to help support the health and safety of our school staff.
Educators and school staff are role models and schools are exemplars for science-based approaches in our communities. Vaccination forms an important part of a multi-layered comprehensive approach to reducing the harmful impacts of COVID in schools and communities and should be supported by additional measures (access to clean air and indoor air quality surveillance as in Boston schools,6 high-quality masks, and testing, among other measures). The end of the federal Public Health Emergency unfortunately does not signify the end of COVID’s harmful impact on our community. We hope MMSD will maintain effective public health approaches such as workplace vaccine requirements, and we encourage all school staff to get up-to-date on vaccinations, including the current bivalent boosters as well as the updated formulations that will become available this fall.
Sincerely,
Barbara Smith
Karl Broman
Kaitlin Sundling, MD, PhD
Fiona Abbott
Susan Nossal
Harry Richardson
Natalia Thompson
Steve Burns
Change.org petition - MMSD: Support the Schools Madison's Students Deserve. https://www.change.org/p/mmsd-support-the-schools-madison-s-students-deserve-bcfcc76d-71f5-4693-ad56-86379e1da528
Lin DY, Xu Y, Gu Y, et al. Effectiveness of Bivalent Boosters against Severe Omicron Infection. N Engl J Med. 2023;388(8):764-766. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2215471
Thaweethai T, Jolley SE, Karlson EW, et al. Development of a Definition of Postacute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection. JAMA. Published online May 25, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.8823
Sauerwein K. Repeat COVID-19 infections increase risk of organ failure, death. Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Published November 10, 2022. https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/repeat-covid-19-infections-increase-risk-of-organ-failure-death/